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Shift Workshop Video

Our Curriculum Development Process

Shift Workshop Resources

Upcoming AIR:Shift Workshops

GIVE US THREE DAYS AND WE’LL CHANGE YOUR WORLD

The Shift Workshop is an entry point into a community of exchange, support and development fueled by cutting-edge online resources and a powerful curriculum. The workshops change people that attend in a way that is true and lasting.

Skilled facilitators lead small groups through exercises that produce hands-on experience in collaboration, planning, and challenging our mental models about art, business, money, and community. It’s totally unique in bringing together emerging and professional creatives with business professionals for a sustained, collaborative learning experience.

The Shift Workshop is designed to serve 36 people with four facilitators. Since 2012 writers, musicians, lawyers, accountants, small business owners, educators, visual artists, filmmakers and more have participated.

What will I learn?

Day One

Discover new ways to think about the power of creativity and challenge your mental models about art, business, community and money.

Day Two

Learn by doing – with others! Take the mystery out of business planning. Strengthen your creative muscles. Practice design thinking and prototyping. Work with a small, facilitated group to refine collaboration skills, create a local project that uses creativity to improve your community, and, as a group, build a business plan that is sustainable and achievable.

Day Three

Find your voice. Present your groups’ plan and get valuable feedback. Make it personal. Get a fifteen minute coaching session and start planning your new career path, organization, project, or creative venture. Get accountability tools to achieve your goals.

Web Tools

Every AIR Shift Workshop Participant has access to AIR Portal which is loaded with content, connections to the national AIR network, and a private area just for you and your workshop cohort. From the AIR Portal, you will be able to easily access digital versions of materials, worksheets, and collaboration tools. Additionally, you will have access to the Knowledge Center which filled additional resources to help you make the most of your Shift!

Where is the Participant Portal?

The top navigation contains a tab ‘Participant Portal’. This is where you will login with the given credentials.

My Classes

This is where you will ﬁnd your class(es) that you are enrolled in and access downloadable class materials.

AIR Share

AIRShare

Accessing AIRShare is fun, interactive, and easy! To find your AIRShare Dashboard, simply click your name in the top right hand corner of the webpage, and then, in the left sidebar, click “My AIRShare Dashboard”. Your AIRShare Dashboard is where your profile lives, and where you will interact with others. There are two rows of menu items. The first row is main menu items, and the second is submenu items.

Activity

Think of your “Activity” page like you would a newsfeed. Here, you will see your recent updates/uploads, your mentions (when someone uses the @yourname tag), when someone favorites an update or reply that you have written, your friends’ activity, and group/forum activity.

Profile

To get started, you’ll want to complete your profile.

First, click “Edit” and then fill in your “Name”, “My Story”, “Website”, “Phone”, “Email”, “Location”, and “Facebook” fields as you wish. Click “SAVE CHANGES”. Then, scroll up and click “Even More About Me” and fill in your “My Shift Story” as you wish and click “SAVE CHANGES”.

Change Cover Image

You can also add a cover image by clicking “Change Cover Image” and following the same steps.

Notifications

Notifications is where you will find notifications about mentions, replies, favorites etc.

Messages

Send and receive messages from friends and members. Under the “Messages” link you can view your messages, view starred messages, view your sent messages, and compose new messages. To compose a message, click “Compose”, fill in the username of the recipient, add a subject line, write your message, and then click “Send Message.”

Friends

Friend other members, and members of your cohort. Have fun, and push each other forward. Under the “Friends” link, you’ll find your friends list, and you can review any friendship requests you have.

Groups

Groups is where you will find your Group Memberships. You will automatically be added to your cohort’s group. Here you will be able to see the Members list (everyone in your cohort), engage in public forums, and share almost any type of media ranging from mp3 files to videos and photos. Click “Members” on the top menu bar that is located beneath the group description to view all of the members of your cohort. Send a “friendship” request to everyone in your cohort so that you are able to quickly communicate with each other.

Forums

In “Forums” you will be able to start topics, reply to topics already started, reply to members’ replies to topics, favorite topics and replies, and subscribe to a forum or topic.

Once you’ve explored a bit, Click “Forums” and find the forum topic titled “Introductions.” Reply to the topic with your own introduction. Share an interesting story, or talk about your hobbies. Tell us where you are in your life, but remember this is only a semi private space. Everyone in your cohort will be able to see your posts, but the general public will not have access. Also, by using the forum you agree that information shared within the forum stays there and will not be shared with anyone outside of your cohort.

Media

Media can be uploaded and shared in two different ways. The first way is on your profile. Your profile has a “Media Gallery” where you can store media on your profile page for others and yourself to view. The second way is to share within the group. Media will live in the group and can be viewed there, but will not live on your profile. Uploading media either way is very similar. First (either from your group or from your profile) click “Media”. Then “upload”, then “select files.” Your media is stored by media type. Add at least one file of any type of media to your group, and your profile Media Gallery.

Danny Isaacs

Cyndi Hall

Jennifer Reis

The Paradigm Shift

The AIR Institute of Berea College is built on a belief that creativity and the arts are poised to take a new role in our communities. There is a paradigm shift taking place that is encouraging collaboration between the world of creativity and the world of business. This shift places a higher value on the act of creation and innovation, giving artists new ideas for career paths and increased opportunities to have a positive economic impact in their communities.

The shift is also changing the definition of profit in the business world. More entrepreneurs and business leaders recognize that financial profit cannot be the only measure of success. The rise of social enterprise, businesses that value community and public benefit as much as profit, is allowing for shared values with the art world.

Great examples of this new shift lie in the rise of the design-thinking process used in creative businesses like Apple, IDEO, and Pixar. Design thinking is a creative process that allows businesses to innovate more effectively, provides a more human-centered focus and a longer period of piloting or prototyping new ideas and products. Artists naturally use the design-thinking process every day which makes them sought-after employees in the most innovative companies in the United States.

Exercise I: Voice Training

We can all use a little coaching on how to speak confidently and loud enough so that we are heard. This exercise helps you focus on posture, breathing, and voice resonance

Posture

Feet shoulder width apart

Weight evenly distributed

Knees above the arches of your feet and not locked

Hips above the knees

Shoulders above the hips

Ears over shoulders

Breath

Breathe deeply, expanding your lower belly.

Represent your breath with hand movements. Breathe in and your hands push down in front of you, rising with each inhale.

Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Voice Resonance

Place hands on the side of your face in front of your ears and behind your temples.

Starting at a low pitch and sliding up, make a siren sound.

Concentrate on your voice being in front your hands.

Feel the resonance through your hands.

Exercise II: Speed Pitching

You’ve heard of speed dating. This is not that. Speed pitching is your chance to share a bit about who you are, your story, with everyone participating in the Shift Workshop. You’ll get more concise, comfortable, and faster every time you share your personal “speed pitch.” Try not to get distracted when your partner is sharing – practice deep listening and make notes about things you want to learn more about when you talk with people later in the workshop.

Tell Your Story in 1½ minutes

Your name

Are you here as a business person, an artist, a community member?

Speak about your art, occupation, career, etc.

What are you passionate about?

What brought you here?

Exercise Directions

Seated in facing pairs, you will have 1½ minutes each to introduce yourself to your partner.

Each 1½ minute introduction is strictly timed and announced.

As directed by the facilitator, one row stands up and moves to the right.

Community Collaboration

With your Collaboration Team and AIR Facilitator, create a project or program that embodies the paradigm shift. Your solution should engage art, business, government, and education sectors and should reach a non-local audience.

You will work as a team to complete a project plan that includes specific impact goals, audience, partners, budget, staffing plan, timeline, and marketing strategy. You will make a presentation of the project to everyone on Sunday morning. Our Facilitators will provide feedback, as if they were potential funders, investors, or partners. After working on your project as a team, you will give and receive feedback from another team so that you can refine your final project details.

Your project should keep the AIR vision in mind:

The emergence of more vibrant and enterprising communities through the generation of new value for the arts and creativity.

By expanding and engaging creativity, the community thrives, and artists are valued as strategic contributors.

Community members, including educators, have access to interactive arts experiences and creativity skill development programs.

Collaboration goals:

Have more people understand and embrace the paradigm shift that Art Builds Business Builds Art.

Your community is prone to innovation and values arts and creativity.

Engage disparate groups and use cross-discipline partnerships.

Impact locally and globally.

Be implementable by your team, an existing local organization, agency, and/or company.

Building the Project Plan: Overview

This is the most challenging exercise of the workshop. Your team will achieve consensus — you will refine your brainstorm into an actual Community Collaboration Project that you all agree to work on together.

This is not easy work. And the design process is not easy. The design process allows us to be open to ideas for a longer period of time, but it also forces us to be constrained. We have deadlines to meet, budgets that can’t be changed, and specific success metrics and indicators that we want to achieve.

Design Thinking is an interactive process—we refine our ideas by doing research, getting market feedback, and doing experiments that inform our project. Most importantly, design thinking is human centered. Always think about the people you are serving, helping, or trying to change, when you work on your project.

Prototyping, Testing, and Refining

Help is on the way! Now that you have your whole project mapped out, you’re going to share with another team. This isn’t exactly a prototyping exercise, but it is direct feedback and time for reflection and refinement.

Use your worksheets to share your project and the details. You will not be judged for your presentation skills—that’s for tomorrow. What you really want is feedback so that you can refine your project and be ready to dig into your presentation preparation. So share things that you’re struggling with so that you can get advice or new ideas.

Remember the spirit of the “Yes, and” exercise? Now is the time to use it again—with constructive feedback. Sharing criticism isn’t helpful if you aren’t heard. A great way to help another team is to make a feedback sandwich—start with a delicious slice of positive observation, then gently point out something that could use work, and then add the final pow of something else that really worked.

The AIR Institute curriculum was developed with coaching as an important element. We believe we all could use support to figure out what is important in life, challenge us to achieve our goals, and get out of ruts. Hey, if athletes use coaches, why can’t we?

Activity A: Coaching Session & Reflection

You will have a 15-minute coaching session with your facilitator, as scheduled. During the remaining 30 minutes, please prepare and/or reflect on your coaching session, the workshop, your career and how the tools and ideas from this workshop can be implemented into your life and career. Work on your Shift Statement and your Action Plan too if you have time.

Section 23Personal Shift Statement

Section 24Licensing Your Work

Lecture 45

Section Self Reflection

Section 25AIR Shift Wrap-Up

Lecture 46

Lecture 47

Section Self Reflection

Section 26Evaluation

About Us

The AIR Institute is an empowering ecosystem that provides artists, businesses and communities the tools, resources, and support to learn, connect, and succeed.

The AIR Institute merges the creativity of the arts with the innovation of business to raise the value of arts and creativity in all our communities.